British geopolitical interests in South Caucasus at the end of the 18th century to the first quarter of the 19th century

It was in the 18th century military-political situation on South Caucasus characterized by strengthening of activity in the region of three regional powers - Russia (only starts to gain positions in the region), as well as Iran and the Ottoman Empires (more and more losing its positions).The main content of the British diplomacy was to ensure its foreign trade interests at this time. Its activity increased in the region and tried to turn Iran into an instrument of its policy in the Middle East at the end of the 18th century. In reaction to Iran-France contract, they imposed a number of political and commercial contracts on Iran to protect British position in the East. They also tried to acquire new areas in Caucasus, to increase their influence, including economic rights, pushed Foreign Office to incite against Russia, Ottoman and Iran. These factors caused to widen new conflicts in South Caucasus. Britain not only provoked Iran to war against Russia (1801-1813 and 1826 – 1828), but also fully prepared him paying money, supplied its military with arms and ammunition. Whole British policy in the region until 1828 was based on prevention in the South Caucasus region as well as Qajar‘s Iran, and other rival European powers, especially France and Russia. Nevertheless, the British policy of containment of Russia in South Caucasus was not successful. In general, geopolitical situation in the Caucasus changed dramatically, by the beginning of the 30-ies of the 19th century.The paper relies on official and semi-official Caucasian and Russian historiography, contemporary western accounts, as well some secondary sources.

:Giunashvili, Helen, Abuladze, Tamar

Safavid Iran and Georgia: Questions of Interrelations in the Light of Persian Historical Documents

1. Among rich collections preserved at the Georgian National Antiquities XVI-XVIII cc Persian historical documents present the most important records for the study of Iranian-Georgian (Caucasian) culturalhistorical relations. The documents are kept at the National Center of Manuscripts (the fund PD, 511 units), the National Archive of the Ministry of Justice (the funds N 1452 and N 1450 (1237 units)) and the Museum of Art of Georgia (4 units). They are absolutely unique from their content, completeness, historical and artistic significance.2. The collections join Persian firmans (deeds), hoqms, books of grants and purchases, letters of appeal (petitions) of shahs of Iran and Georgian governors, who adopted Islam, with the resolutions of shahs or kings of Georgia. The deeds of trade transactions, notes, trade and taxation receipts, wedding contracts, etc. are represented in abundance. They refer to both Georgia and other parts of Caucasus as well. The documents are addressed to the Georgian feudals, cathalicoses, Armenian meliks and others.3. The Safavid documents preserved at the Georgian depositories issued by Shah-Thamaz, Shah Sepi I, Shah-Abbas I, Shah Suleiman, Shah Sultan Husein, Shah Abbas II and some others, are mostly important primary sources, clearly illustrating political, social, economic aspects of Iranian-Georgian interrelations. Their language, lexis, semantics, style and phraseology reveal the literary language development‘s tendencies of that common cultural area. From this point these documents have not been studied up to the present.4. Researches of the linguistic aspects of the Persian historical documents is of special interest from the viewpoint of the phenomenon of the lexical interference, expressed first of all in the social-administrative terminology. This is a bilateral phenomenon, conditioned by the geographical proximity, close political and cultural relations. 5. The Persian documents require complex, interdisciplinary research, which will enable us to discuss the problems of cultural-linguistic interference in wider aspect, to comprehensively and deeply highlight one important segment of the Iranian-Georgian relations.

:Khalili, Mohsen

The Geopolitical Characteristics of Iran's Qajar era from the Viewpoints of Russian Itinerary

WritersIn 19thcentury, Iran gained a significant standing in international system (that had been based on the balance of powers). On one hand, given Iran‘s strategic position, as a corridor state, powerful countries could not afford to ignore Iran, which, at the time played an important role in competition among great powers. On the other hand, Iran functioned as a buffer state among two intrusive and powerful governments of Russia and England. Iran was neither colony nor independent and it just played the role of a buffer in the breathtaking competition between two superpowers. Moreover, at that time, Iran and Central Asia were involved in a Great game. Russia regarded Iran as an important country in order to damage England's interests in India and Afghanistan. For England, Iran was of utmost significance to curb Russia‘s interests in the Persian Gulf and prevent other powers' influence on India. In these circumstances, itinerary writers and memoir-writing diplomats played the role of mediator to understand the "other" side. In this paper, the writer has tried to investigate and survey the specifications of Russian Iranology by studying the content of itineraries and memoirs of Russians who traveled to Iran in the era of Qajar reign. Based on three elements, i.e. corridor state, buffer state and Great game; the writer tries to reassess the factors which contributed to Russians' superiority in Iran-Russia ties.

:Matthee, Rudi

The Safavids and Decline: Different Interpretations

My paper examines the issue of Safavid decline as it has been treated in Western and Iranian historiography ever since the Safavids began to decline, or were seen to have begun to decline, in the mid to late seventeenth century. Relying on source material in a variety of languages, as well as on modern secondary literature, I will consider this topic from three perspectives. The first is the overall historiographical tradition in which the discourse about Safavid decline has been embedded, going back to Greco-Roman notions about decline following a biological trajectory and being essentially moral in nature. The second involves the question of transmission. It is clear that the notion of Safavid decline was first propagated in a early 19th-century British, Georgian-era environment that celebrated the manly virtues of discipline and that associated ―Oriental‖ despotism with an ―air of softness and effeminacy‖ exemplified by royal debauchery and the baleful influence of harem women. The third concerns the question of borrowing. Modern Iranian historiography of the Safavids, rooted in the ancient GrecoRoman tradition, has also adopted the modern Western interpretation of the dynasty‘s decline, while casting it in a modern nationalist framework

Along with Abu Bakr b. Abdollah: From Istanbul to Transcaucasia and Tabriz (1578-1585)

Abu Bakr b. Abdollah, the secretary (=Katib) of Osman Pasha (the commander in chief of Ottoman), has been actively present in the Ottoman army attacking the Iranian neighboring borders with Transcucasia and Azerbaijan. He had even been arrested as a captive towards the end of the war by Qizilbash troops.

After two years imprisonment and captivity, he escaped to Istanbul. Having written the Osman Pasha history, he left behind a first hand account of Iran-Ottoman military confrontation along the years 1578-1585.(It should be mentioned that this historical work has been translated from original Ottoman Turkish into Persian by the writer of the abstract). The great significance of the book, besides showing the seven year Iran-Ottoman war, reveals some more information, as we can find in it other equally invaluable clues about ethnology, geography, historical geography of Iranian urban centers in Transcaucasia and Azerbaijan and finally the war crimes committed by the Ottoman army in Tabriz.Here, we basically discuss nonmilitary issues so that illustrates a unique image of Iran by an Ottoman secretary

:Sanikidze, George

Georgia as a Bridge between Iran and Europe in the 19thc

.The nineteenth century marks the beginning of an entirely new era in the history of Georgian–Iranian relations. The relations between the two countries were not severed but acquired several new aspects.

First and foremost, the relations were of economic nature, as Georgia and its capital had gradually become a transit route for Iranian goods entering Russia and Europe, and vice versa. The second aspect involved the ﬁltering of European and Russian ideas as well as cultural and technical advancements to Iran through Georgia. Yet another signiﬁcant aspect was the social and cultural activity of the Iranian community of Tbilisi. Attention is focused on the diverse spheres of activities of the Muslim population of Georgia. The Muslim population of the capital city of Georgia, multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Tbilisi in the nineteenth century was substantial and the city held a special position in the relations between Georgia and Iran.

The Iranians represented the most numerous Muslim community of Tbilisi. Tbilisi also played an important role as a socio-political centre for free-thinking Iranians.The study was conducted using documents from the central archives of Tbilisi and Batumi as well as some unedited notes, memoirs, statistical books, and articles from the nineteenth-century press.

:Tiburcio, Alberto

Conversion narratives in the Late Safavid Period: the case of „Ali Akbar Armani

The phenomenon of Christian converts to Islam during the late Safavid period has attracted scholarly attention over the years. Systematic studies have been made by Babayan, Babaie et al. on how Armenian and Georgian converts were recruited for the ghulam corps and of the role they played on the economic, military, and even political system of Safavid Iran. However, for all the interest this topic has raised, most studies on the matter tend to rely on macroscopic descriptions of conversions portrayed in the major historical chronicles like ‘Alam-ara-yi ‘Abbasi, ‘Abbasnamah, and Khuld-i barin. Few available sources can give us a more intimate and detailed look at specific cases of converts, allowing us to either question the general assumptions on the topic or to explore further dimensions of this phenomenon. The case of the recently published I’tirafnamah of ‗Ali Akbar Armani (Tehran, 2010) partly fills this gap. My paper explores different ways in which this source can be approached. Although the most obvious value of this document lies on its being a testimony of the mobility of an Armenian merchant from Isfahan and Julfa to Istanbul and Venice, and of the discrimination suffered by the convert at the hands of other Armenians; the nature of the text requires me to raise other theoretical questions. Most of the body of the text consists on the author‘s daily dreams with the Prophet and with the Imams, and therefore the question of what it means to use dreams as a rationale for action and the role that dreams play as a part of an intimate confession of faith become crucial. For this reason, I combine in my paper textual and historical/contextual analysis. I address the issue of how to rely on a work of this nature for historical purposes, without being a naïve reader, but I do not subscribe to the idea that such texts should be only taken as literature, and thus I complement my analysis with material on the topic of Armenian converts from other more widely used sources from the Safavid period

:Traina, Giusto

Framing ancient Armenian history: the Iranian connections

One of the main methodological problems in Armenian history is the framing of political principalities –and, after 188 BC, of the kingdom of Greater Armenia- in the geopolitical balance created by the Achemenid Empire, prosecuted by the Macedonians and Seleucids, and refined by the Parthians. Despite the attempts of modern scholars to track the roots of Armenian identity in a rather remote past, it is actually difficult to disentangle the proto-Armenian elements from the other Anatolian and Caucasian cultures, and is is almost impossible to consider the Armenian-ruled principalities and kingdoms as totally autonomous political entities. The establishment of the Arsacid dynasty eventually tightened the relationship between Armenia and Iran, as we can see from local written traditions, but the coming of the Sassanians changed radically the balance of power. In a certain sense, Armenian identity seems to be the result of a process started with the Sassanian elaboration of an idea of Iran.

:OGNIBENE Paolo

Alan Place Names in (West) Europe

In the second half of the IV century part of the Alans, following the Huns, moved from Caucasus to West Europe. The presence of the Alans in West Europe is attested by several chronicles, but we can find also many alan place names in Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain. Except for the works of Bachrach

(Appendix 1 to A History of the Alans in the West) and Thordarson (Gallia Alanica) one can not find recent studies on this relevant subject.

Islamic Revolution of 1979 and downfall of the Pahlavi rule entertained hopes for social freedom and democracy almost for all Iranians in general and for the ethnic peoples in particular. After the end of Iran-Iraq war and passage of a decade under Islamic rule, ethnic peoples of Iran found themselves being treated by the same policies experienced under Pahlavi regime. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the demographic changes in the region such as creation of independent Turkic states of Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in the Central Asia and Azerbaijan in Caucasus could not alter the mind sets of the Islamic rulers to relax the social conditions for the ethnic peoples of Iran. Different Iranian ethnic people continued to express their resentment to the Islamic government‘s treatment of their language and culture in different ways. Azerbaijanis comprising a great majority of the ethnic peoples have opted non-violent responses to the suppression of their language and culture and the denial of their identity. They have kept a low profile with respect to the so-called ―Green Movement‖.

They have published a good number of articles and statements pertaining to their non-involvement in the Green Movement, and they have expressed disillusionment and mistrust toward their Persian speaking fellow countrymen. The publication of a caricature in the government owned newspaper; Iran dated 4-18-206, which carried derogatory remarks against Azerbaijani Turks engulfed Azerbaijani cities in street protests of the youth. The huge outpour of wrath and anger by the Azerbaijani youth in the summer of 2006 during which a number of youths were killed and many numbers were arrested received very little coverage in country‘s media or the outside opposition media controlled by the ―Aryan myth worshiper‖ compatriots. Analyzing the most recent literature, this paper will study Azerbaijanis‘ lack of involvement in the Green Movement, and it will explain how Azerbaijanis‘ concept of democracy for Iran differs from that of the so-called Green Movement supporters

:Umnyashkin, Alexander

Lexemes of Semitic Origin in Iranian Languages of the South Caucasus

One of the most interesting and insufficiently studied relict languages of the Iranian group, spread on the territory of the South Caucasus, is the language of the mountain Jews (LMJ). According to statistics, there are about 4,000 native speakers of this language living nowadays in Quba district in the north of the Republic of Azerbaijan. This group of people was the target group for our research during 1997-2007.While the language of the Azerbaijani Tats has been rather sufficiently studied and has close etymological ties with Persian, the LMJ and its origin remain an unresolved problem. Upper pharyngeal consonants in the LMJ phonetics are characteristic of the Hamito-Semitic languages and absent in the Iranian group, which fact lets us assume the LMJ‘s role in the genesis of the Aramaic language. This assumption has led a number of philologists to believe that ―zuhun imromi‖, as the mountain Jews call their secret language, has definite Aramaic roots. The etymological examination of the LMJ‘s lexis and grammar conducted among the target group, confirm the hypothesis of a relation between the mountain Jews and the inhabitants of Judea who were banished at the end of the 4thcentury B.C. and moved to Mesopotamian area. After their descendants‘ revolt had been crushed in the 5thcentury A.D., they moved to the north of modern Azerbaijan.A lexicological analysis, notably the examination of somatic lexemes, demonstrates that in spite of the fact that the majority of the LMJ words are primordial Iranian words, the conversational speech of the mountain Jews contains a considerable amount of Semitic lexemes (particularly observed in elderly informants). The results of our investigation prove an urgent need for conducting the multilateral interdisciplinary research of .the LMJ before this language disappears forever